Facts to Face
by Pythonmelon
Summary: When Mina catches Vlad in the act of feeding they both have to look at the hard truth of what he is, and what he was seven hundred years ago
1. Chapter 1

Count Vlad was treating himself to something special tonight- a 'guest'. Not Mina of course, he never let her around the castle on nights like this. He smiled darkly. As much as the vampire enjoyed children's games and spending time with his little human friend it had to be faced- he was still a vampire. Licking his lips, he started getting ready. He pulled his large blue collar up around his neck, somewhat highlighting his pale blue skin. "These mirrors are vorthless." He grumbled, trying to fix his jacket.

Igor seemed glad enough Mina wasn't coming tonight and that the count was feeding at home. He hadn't done this in over three years and he could count because Master had been seeing the annoying girl since she was seven. Now she was eleven. His eye twitched, tired and grumpy. Igor would actually get some sleep tonight, maybe, if he wasn't plotting how to get Mina away from the count. His master's happiness was the only thing in mind, but the old routine was better. He didn't have to clean up toys, dolls, and board games for a seven hundred year old vampire then.

"Igor, help me vith this stupid thing." The count commanded, pointing to his jacket.

"Yes, Master." The hunchbacked man sighed and straightened the vampire's clothes. He tried to smile. "The girl downstairs is named Gabriella Trent, Master." He nodded.

"Excellent." The count sighed and started downstairs. He was treating Gabriella to a wonderful human dinner that Igor had worked extra hard to prepare and then, he snickered, treating himself. There was that old darkness in Master's eyes- it made Igor happy to see him as his old self for just a moment.

Right about then the little man got an idea; an idea that could easily be worked over into a plan and put into action. He scuttled down the hall towards the telephone. He dialed Mina's number before he was even sure what he was doing. "Hello?" Answered the little girl he somehow managed to dread, despise, and care for all at the same time.

"Oh, yes." The hunchbacked man caught himself. "Hello, Mina." He tried to sound polite. The idea burned like an iron in the back of his mind; hot, mean, and nasty.

"What is it, Igor? I've got homework." She was biting on her eraser, mulling over a few science problems.

"The count has changed his mind and would like you to come over immediately." He lied quickly. In the foyer he could hear Vlad greeting Gabby ecstatically.

"Alright, I'll be over." Mina smiled and hung up. Igor grinned, showing his crooked and rotten teeth.

This plan wasn't hard and required little cunning. Mina, poor naïve Mina, had never really understood the count for _what_ he was, just _who_ he was. She knew he was a vampire but did not understand that he drank blood. Now Igor was going to show her. Of course the Count would be furious, but it was worth it to get the little girl out of their hair. She was nothing but a stake in the little man's side.

"Ah, Gabby, I'm so pleased that you could make it!" The count descended the stairs. He flung back his light blue cape and took the young woman's hand, kissing it.

The olive skinned girl blushed brightly. He heard her pulse quicken, delicious life giving blood rushing into her cheeks. She was eighteen, fresh out of high school and full of life. The count, frozen in time at twenty-one, had hypnotized her into thinking she had a date here tonight. The girl didn't really have any idea who he was, but went with it. "Wonderful to see you." She smiled. "Are we going out?"

"No, I thought ve'd stay here tonight." He smiled. Sliding across the floor silently, Count Vlad led her into the dining hall. "Hungry?" The vampire motioned to plate after fine china plate Igor had filled with fine human food.

Gabriella slapped a hand over her mouth and giggled. "Oh, yes." Count pulled back her chair and she was seated. He sat down on the far end and started an idle conversation while his dinner ate.

"Sorry I'm late." Mina said immediately when Igor opened the door. He was surprised by how tall she had gotten. When he first made the mistake of putting her on Master's schedule she had been seven. Now she was eleven and chasing twelve. Her body was becoming more shapely and curving into that of a woman.

"That's fine." The little hunchback nodded. "The count was just getting ready."

By now Gabby had finished and was sitting on Vlad's lap. She was, like many women, hopelessly attracted to him. The Count kissed her neck carefully, feeling her blood pulse through the perfectly shapen vein. She smiled excitedly and closed her eyes. "Look at me." He grinned, licking his fangs carefully.

When the young woman turned to him his natural magnetism gave way to hypnotism. He only hypnotized his prey to kill the pain and, importantly, screaming that came with death. Her eyelids fluttered and she shrugged against his chest. Smiling hungrily he tilted up the girl's chin and bit into the sinewy flesh.

The blood washed over his fangs and he drank, thirsty and glad for sustenance. She jerked futily for a second and went limp.

Igor had timed it perfectly and lead her into the castle's living room just in time to see him bite Gabby. Mina's face went pale. The count's eyes were closed, absorbed in sucking the blood from his prey. He swallowed minutely, almost happily. She watched her friend's throat rise and fall as if he was breathing. This continued, unbroken because he had not noticed Mina. She was shocked that the Count would do something so- she dug up one of her spelling words- _barbaric_.

Vlad finally could not take any more out of his victim without killing her and looked up. He realized she was here and had seen everything. "Mina-" She was already gone.


	2. Chapter 2

"Igor!" He stood up and loomed over the little man. "Vat have you done?!"

The hunchback flinched. Maybe he should have thought this through more thoroughly. Now an attack was imminent. "Master, I'm sorry!" He wasn't really, but it never hurt to say otherwise.

Vlad was fully prepared to kill Igor, but realized it might be more important to stop Mina from getting to far. "I vill be back for you later." He smacked Igor on the side of the head and flew down the hall after Mina. "Mina come back!" He followed her across the stone floor. His friend was running down through the castle's passageways, less from him than from what he was. She tripped over a hall carpet and fell, skidding along the material. This vital moment was what let the count catch up with her.

Mina was curled into a ball, crying fearfully. He felt a pang of sadness. Vlad sank into a cloud of mist and surrounded her, reforming at the girl's side. She looked away sadly. "Did you kill her?"

"No, Mina. I haven't killed anyone since ve met!" He put a cold blue hand on her shoulder and squeezed tenderly.

"But you have killed people." Mina glanced at him. He couldn't lie to her.

"I have," She was making the vampire feel ashamed. He _hated_ feeling ashamed. "But you've made me a better person." The count stood up and took her hand, helping Mina to her feet. "Come vith me." She followed warily down through the parlor and a flight of stairs.

"Where are we going?" The red headed girl had calmed down. She was still scared after witnessing the bite but knew the count would never hurt her and was regaining her curiosity.

"There is something I need to show you." He kept walking briskly. When they came to the living room he opened an old cupboard. Mina had never seen it opened and tilted her head curiously. "My past." Vlad held out a photo album, dusty but rather new-looking, like it had rarely been touched.

The girl touched the book carefully. "Pictures of you as a kid?"

He sat down on the couch tiredly. His eyes were sad and close to getting watery. "Not photos, but very nice drawings. Ve didn't have cameras ven I was a child." Mina looked at him with amazement. She climbed onto the couch beside him. "My mother vas a talented artist." The vampire explained, opening the book to a drawing of a tall, slender man with a beard holding a baby. It was hard to believe that this picture was a little over seven hundred years old with its excellent condition. "She vas always drawing me and my father Gregory, and some of my friends, and herself sometimes." He nodded at the memories. "I vas lucky to get these pictures." He carefully ran a finger over the self portrait of a slight, bright woman with wavy black hair.

"Were they surprised when you came out blue?" Mina had her arms wrapped around one of his. He chuckled quietly.

"No, I vas the same color as any other child." He turned the page. "I vas bitten and turned into a vampire, so that's how my skin turned blue." He ruffled her hair. The girl sighed and looked down. She had, for some reason, thought he was born just the way he was now. "But that part comes later." He smiled. It hurt to recall things from so far back, when he was human. Wrapping a long arm around this beacon of life he loved so much, he turned the page again. Mina lit up. It was a picture, well drawn and shaded, of Vlad at age seven. His face was dirt stained and the short black hair was messed up. "Ah," He smiled. "I remember this. It was my cousin's tenth birthday and we ran into the forest to play." Mina giggled. She had to remember; this was a full seven hundred years ago in Europe.

"And here," He skipped several pages, his childhood and adolescence skipping by. Finally he stopped on a detailed drawing of him standing with a lovely young woman. "My girlfriend from ven I vas sixteen. She vas a lovely thing." He hummed quietly. "And it lasted between us for some time, actually. Sarah and I vere married ven ve vere nineteen."

Mina looked at him in surprise. "Nineteen?"

"Yes." He smiled. "And ve had my son when ve vere both twenty." He flipped the page again and almost took in a sharp breath of physical pain when an image of his wife and son again showed up. The little child was trying to toddle on his feet. "Thomas vas so much fun. He had a sense of humor even at that age."

Mina smiled. She would have loved to meet Thomas. "What color was his hair?" She admired the cute little boy but noticed that he had light hair, unlike Vlad.

"It vas blonde." The count nodded. "Like his mother's." Mina reached out to turn the page and found a few more drawings of Sarah, Thomas, and Vlad before it ended abruptly.

"Where did the rest go?" She looked through the rest. It didn't get very far- Thomas was hardly one when the book ended.

"The book ended ven I died." He sighed. The count pulled Mina close. She hugged him tightly.

"How did you die?" she didn't want to hurt him, just wanted to know what exactly had happened. He looked at her sadly.

"I vas veak, and it vouldn't have happened if I vasn't." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I went out drinking one night and ran into a beautiful young woman. Her name was," He tried to remember. "Anne. She took me to her home and used the hypnotism to seduce me." Mina didn't really know what seduce meant, but she nodded to show that she was following along. "Then she bit me."

"Does it hurt?" Mina asked. It certainly appeared to hurt, but she wasn't sure.

"Terribly." He replied. "Especially when you're being turned and not just fed off of." He patted Mina on the back and reached up to touch his bite wound. The girl winced and hugged him.

"Why did she make you a vampire?" She took her head off of his shoulder.

"I was a slave." His face got sour. "I did her house vork. Cleaning, protection and such."

"Protection from what?" Mina raised an eyebrow. She didn't know vampires were afraid of anything.

"Slayers." The count stuck out his tongue. "Humans who hunt and kill vampires."

The girl frowned. "Couldn't you run away?"

"No, I vas under her control. She taught me to feed and use my powers. Ve vere together for, oh," He put a finger to his lip, digging up the memory. "Seventy years. I might have been stuck vith her forever if I had done my job of varding off slayers." He laughed quietly. "One day a male slayer came to our home. I vas awake, luckily, and hid vithout vaking Anne up. He killed her and in turn I killed him." Vlad caught himself and looked at Mina. The moment was sensitive.

She stared at him considerately for a second. "But why did you kill him if he saved you?

"He vasn't thinking about saving me." The vampire explained. "One of us vasn't getting out of there alive and I, as the monster I vas, vasn't going out vithout a fight." He hugged Mina close. "I hope you remember, though, that despite vat I have to do to live I'm not that monster anymore."

The girl wiggled out of his grip and gave Vlad a loving smile. "I know." She had just been frightened before, but it was gone now. She slipped a hand into his waist pocket and drew out a brass watch to check the time. "Seven thirty." She sighed. "My violin lesson is over."

"Oh," the count's shoulders slumped. "Can't you stay a little longer?"

Mina sat up on her knees and kissed his cold cheek. "Sorry, I'll be back tomorrow and we can play then."

He watched as she ran bouncily out the door and home. The moment his friend was out of sight the vampire slammed the door with a crash. Upstairs Igor flinched. Yep, master was mad. "Igor!" Vlad's angry voice ran up the halls.

The hunchback shuffled down the stairs and tried to look innocent. "Yes, master?"

"If you EVER call Mina to the castle vhile I'm feeding again I'll kill you." The count held up a fist and growled. Igor couldn't but give a sigh of relief. He thought he was just getting off with a warning.

"Yes, Master." He almost bowed and tried to walk away, go clean or something, before Vlad caught the back of his shirt.

"Oh no Igor I'm not finished with you." The vampire smiled hungrily. His fangs glinted in the evening light.

"But…but master you've already fed tonight!" The man, again, tried to struggle out and escape. An attack was imminent now. The count held tightly to his collar.

"To bad."


End file.
